Israel to start moving out of West Bank
FROM CHRISTOPHER WALKER IN JERUSALEM
ISRAEL intends to withdraw its troops from six Palestinian towns in the West Bank with the co-operation of the Palestinian Authority, a statement from the office of Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, said early today.
“Israel remains engaged in the peace process and does not want to maintain its army indefinitely in the autonomous sectors,” said the statement issued after a meeting of Israel’s mini-cabinet and other min- isters.
“Israel is, however, at the same time bound to ensure the security of its citizens and consequently this withdrawal will be made in co-ordination with measures taken in this direction by the Palestinian Authority,” it said.
It added that “a trilateral security meeting” will be held today between Israel, the Palestinians and US officials.
An Israeli political official said that Mr Sharon had approved a phased withdrawal from the towns during the meeting of his mini-cabinet and other ministers in Tel Aviv. The pull-out could start as early as tomorrow.
Yesterday Hamas, the Islamic militant group in the West Bank, claimed that Israel had arrested two Palestinians who had returned from Pakistan, on suspicion of having ties to Osama bin Laden.
The dramatic new link between Palestinian militants and the terrorists behind the September 11 atrocities in the US was revealed shortly before Israel’s decision to withdraw its forces from the Palestinian areas. Although bin Laden has made much of the Palestinian cause in his public remarks since the September 11 attacks, most of his top lieutenants are Egyptian or Saudi.
According to Hamas, Aala Sharwan, one of those arrested, studied pharmacy in Pakistan and the second, a relative, was Mahmoud Azam from the same village of Silat Ahartia. Two other relatives are associates of bin Laden, intelligence sources say.
Hours before the Israeli Government’s announcement, three more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops in Bethlehem. One was a member of Yassir Arafat’s Force 17 Presidential Guard, another a leading Hamas militant, the third a Palestinian gunman shot by an Israeli sniper.
In Tulkarm an officer in the Palestinian Authority general security wing was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops. Palestinian sources said that a four-month-old infant was seriously injured.
In another day marked by fierce gun battles in the West Bank, Israeli troops withdrew from the village of Beit Rima where they had launched a mission to catch the assassins of Rehavam Zeevi, the Tourism Minister.
The operation, described by the Palestinian Authority as a “massacre”, left five Palestinians dead, at least four wounded and 50 others under arrest.
Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister, called on the international community to demand that the Palestinian Authority chairman, Yassir Arafat, arrest the men who killed Mr Zeevi. Two are said by Israel to be at large in the West Bank, while two other suspects are under intensive interrogation by Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent of MI5.
Mr Sharon is working on a plan to offer the Palestinians a state before a final peace agreement — provided Mr Arafat stops terrorist violence against Israel. The main elements of the Sharon plan, which follows two recent mentions by President Bush of Palestinian statehood, are understood to be:
A long-term interim agreement with no timetable and the postponement of the Jerusalem and refugee issues.
The Palestinian state will be established before a solution to the other issues.
The envisaged state will be demilitarised, with Israel controlling its borders with Egypt and Jordan and the Israeli Air Force controlling its airspace.
thetimes.co.uk |
